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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Jedidajah Otte and Aaron Walawalkar

UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson says Dominic Cummings acted 'responsibly, legally and with integrity' – as it happened

That’s it from our UK live blog today. Here is a summary of the major developments from this afternoon:

  • Boris Johnson has backed his chief aide Dominic Cummings over his decision to travel 260 miles to Durham during the lockdown. The PM said Cummings acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity”.
  • Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said “it is an insult to sacrifices made by the British people that Boris Johnson has chosen to take no action against Dominic Cummings”. He said the PM’s actions have “undermined confidence in his own public health message at this crucial time”.
  • Johnson confirmed that the government will press ahead with the phased re-opened of schools in England from June 1. He added that he intends for secondary schools to provide “some contact” for year 10 and year 12 students from June 15 to help them to prepare for exams next year – with up to a quarter of these students in at any point.
  • The government has vowed to make 3,300 homes available within 12 months to prevent rough sleepers housed in emergency pandemic accommodation in England returning to the streets. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will bring forward £160m of its £381m, four-year rough sleeping services budget to be spent this year.

My colleague Peter Walker has the full report on today’s biggest story.

If you want to continue following the latest in the coronavirus crisis, pop over to our global live blog.

Updated

Here’s is Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s response to the PM’s decision to back Dominic Cummings:

Updated

By backing Cummings, Johnson has laid bare his disdain for the British public

The prime minister’s self-centred endorsement of his overmighty adviser is an outrageous snub to the rest of us, writes my colleague Martin Kettle:

The poison in Cummings’s journey to Durham is the taint of hypocrisy it injects into the public bloodstream at precisely the time when public confidence in the handling of the crisis is already beginning to fray. One rule for him, another for us. It’s an absolutely lethal tag for any government project, but it’s doubly, triply so in a pandemic. The arrogance and ineptitude are staggering.

Read his full piece here:

The UK Civil Service has issued a surprisingly honest and direct tweet following today’s Downing Street press briefing on the coronavirus crisis.

It has now been deleted but my colleague Claire Phipps had the foresight to take a screenshot for posterity:

Updated

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has issued a clarification that Johnson’s announcement on the lockdown and the phased re-opening of schools applies to England.

She said that the situation in Scotland is set out in the following thread:

Johnson is asked whether he knew at the time that Dominic Cummings was making the trip to Durham and whether he approved it. He is also asked whether it is true Cummings made a trip to Barnard Castle in April.

Johnson avoids answering the questions directly. “What I can tell you is, when you look at the guidance and the childcare needs, it was reasonable to self-isolate for 14 days or more where he did,” he said.

He said that he has looked at the allegations carefully and is content that “on both sides” of that period he behaved “responsibly and correctly”.

Updated

Johnson is asked whether his support for Cummings means that other people are completely at liberty to do as his chief aide did.

“I think what they did was totally understandable,” Johnson replied. “I think any father, any parent would understand what he did.”

Updated

Johnson also confirmed that the government will press ahead with the phased reopening of schools from June 1.

“The education of children is crucial for their welfare, for their long-term future and for social justice,” he said.

“In line with the approach being taken in many other countries, we want to start getting our children back into the classroom in a way that is as manageable and as safe as possible.

“We said we would begin with early years’ settings and reception, year 1, and year 6 in primary schools.”

He added that he intends for secondary schools to provide “some contact” for year 10 and year 12 students from 15 June to help them to prepare for exams next year – with up to a quarter of these students in at any point.

Updated

Johnson also told the Downing Street press conference that “some” of the allegations about Dominic Cummings’ behaviour during self-isolation were “palpably false”.

“Though there have been many other allegations about what happened when he was in self-isolation and thereafter, some of them palpably false, I believe that in every respect he has acted responsibly and legally and with integrity and with the overwhelming aim of stopping the spread of the virus and saving lives.”

The reactions to Johnson’s announcement that Cummings will stay, apparently without any sanction or Cabinet Office investigation, have begun to pour in:

Updated

Johnson backed his chief strategist, saying that in travelling to find the right kind of childcare at the moment when “both he and his wife were about to be incapacitated” Cummings “followed the instincts of every father and every parent and I do not mark him down for that”.

Updated

Cummings acted 'responsibly, legally and with integrity' – PM

Boris Johnson has said that Dominic Cummings acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity”.

Silkie Carlo, director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, has this take on the Cummings saga:

With all eyes on the latest developments regarding the PM’s chief strategist, this more positive news story may have slipped under the radar:

The government has vowed to make 3,300 homes available within 12 months to prevent rough sleepers housed in emergency pandemic accommodation in England returning to the streets.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will bring forward £160m of its £381m, four-year rough sleeping services budget to be spent this year.

Six thousand “housing units” will be built using the money and rough sleepers housed through the scheme will be provided support for mental health or substance abuse issues.

Read our full report here:

Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian member of European parliament, has weighed into the Dominic Cummings saga by tweeting his approval of the following Sunday Times cartoon:

Network Rail has urged potential passengers who do not need to travel to work or for emergencies to avoid taking trains during the bank holiday.

The already drastically reduced national train service is undergoing a major overhaul over the long weekend with 490 upgrading projects taking place, it said.

Find out more in this report from my colleague Henry McDonald:

UK faces backlog of 40,000 criminal cases due to coronavirus

Barristers have warned that the UK’s criminal justice system is facing a backlog of 40,000 cases due to the coronavirus crisis, Owen Bowcott reports:

The scale of the challenge to the justice system posed by the coronavirus pandemic is becoming apparent, as virtual hearings transform business in the higher civil courts but trigger alarms about the fairness of remote proceedings in the family and lower courts.

Reliance on video technology is accelerating the government’s pre-existing £1bn court modernisation programme but also throwing up questions about where it is appropriate: many unrepresented claimants do not have super-fast broadband or are among those categorised as “digitally excluded”.

Here is the full report:

  • This post has been amended – the earlier version had an incorrect figure in the headline

Updated

An arson investigation has been launched after a 5G mobile phone mast was torched, PA Media reports.

Derbyshire police appealed for witnesses after the fire brigade were called to the blaze off Scarborough Drive in the Chaddesden area of Derby at 2am on Sunday.

In a statement, the force said:

We believe the fire was started deliberately and we are investigating.

It follows more than 50 incidents nationwide, believed to be linked to false claims the 5G network is spreading coronavirus.

The attacks prompted action from Twitter and Facebook to crack down on accounts pushing “unverified claims”.

One MP, who launched a fact-checking service, also called for a law to be introduced to stop persistent spreaders of disinformation online.

The Conservative MP Damian Collins, who set up Infotagion to combat falsehoods during the pandemic, said:

It’s not good enough that we just have to remove certain posts that are wrong.

Updated

Sturgeon calls for Cummings to go

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted the following in connection with growing calls for Dominic Cummings to step down as chief strategist.

This is Aaron Walawalkar, taking over from my colleague Jedidajah Otte, as the clock ticks down to the daily coronavirus press briefing at 5pm today. As always, please message me any of your UK coronavirus updates on Twitter @AaronWala.

Here’s is a selection of health workers’ reactions to the Dominic Cummings scandal on Twitter.

From cardiology registrar Dr Dominic Pimenta:

From consultant and emergency medicine lecturer Dr Farbod:

From anaesthetic registrar Natalie Silvey:

From palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke:

PM to lead press conference

Downing Street has confirmed that Boris Johnson will be leading the government’s press conference today at 5pm, instead of housing minister Robert Jenrick, who had been previously announced.

I am now handing over to my colleage Aaron Walawalkar.

This from Joe Pike from Sky News:

Here a clip featuring the former chief constable of Durham police Mike Barton during a BBC interview this afternoon, in which he calls out Cummings’ behaviour as a clear breach of the rules.

My colleague Vikram Dodd spoke to Barton earlier.

This from my colleague Toby Helm:

Vaccine will be ready by September, drug maker chief claims

British people will be able to access a coronavirus vaccine from September, the chief executive of drug maker AstraZeneca has said, despite concerns it will not be ready.

Pascal Soriot told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that British people will get first access to the vaccine from autumn.

The pharmaceutical firm, which is working with Oxford University, had previously said it has secured the first agreements for at least 400 million doses of the vaccine, PA Media reports.

But a leading member of the project told the Sunday Telegraph the lower transmission of Covid-19 in the community leaves the trial with only a 50% chance of success.

Asked if people in Britain would be among the first to get the vaccine, Soriot said: “Yes, we have actually received an order from the British government to supply 100 million doses of vaccine, and those will go to the British people.

“And there’s no doubt, starting in September, we will start delivering these doses of vaccine to the British government for vaccination.”

But Soriot went on to say the possibility of the vaccine being rolled out in autumn depended on if an Oxford University trial worked before the transmission rate lowers further.

He added: “The vaccine has to work and that’s one question, and the other question is, even if it works, we have to be able to demonstrate it.

“We have to run as fast as possible before the disease disappears so we can demonstrate that the vaccine is effective.”

Oxford University’s Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group began development on a vaccine in January, using a virus taken from chimpanzees.

Updated

The government’s daily press conference has been delayed by an hour and will now start at 5pm.

This from the BBC’s Nick Eardley:

This from the Telegraph’s Tony Diver:

This from the Sunday Times’s Tim Shipman:

Updated

My colleague Katherine Butler just spoke to Ben, 31, a marketing manager in the music industry who’s cycled from Leytonstone to Islington to demonstrate outside Dominic Cummings’s house.

He said:

I’m not with any organisation or campaign, just a member of the public. I’ve been furloughed and I was just sat at home angry and frustrated.

I think it’s disgusting. It’s one rule for him and the rest of us. It’s disgraceful how the government is protecting him.

I’ve been at home with my wife for two months. But thinking of all the people who’ve made big sacrifices and not seen their loved ones.

Updated

Freeman told the BBC: “If I had known everything I know now... we may have made different decisions”, as she reacts to claims it was “irresponsible” to send 921 untested hospital patients into care homes in March.

Scotland’s health secretary Jeane Freeman issued a reminder to everyone in Scotland about the rules around self-isolation, saying the “message may have become confused in the last 24 hours because of events in other parts of the UK”.

Speaking at the Scottish government’s latest coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh, she said self-isolating is not the same as lockdown and means “you should not leave the house for any reason”, the PA reports.

“So let me be clear what we mean here in Scotland. Self-isolation means the following: if you think you have the virus, if you have a persistent cough, or a fever, or loss of taste and/or smell, you should self-isolate at home for a minimum of seven days, “ Freeman said.

“In that time you should get tested if you can, bearing in mind that testing is now open to anyone over the age of five who has symptoms.

“At the same time anyone in your household should self-isolate for 14 days to see if they develop virus, and if they do, they should self-isolate for seven days from that point.

“From the eighth day, if you do not have any more symptoms you can go back, back to the lockdown measures that apply across the country.”

Here is a video showing Dominic Cummings leaving his north London home earlier this morning and denying that he had travelled to Durham a second time when he was asked by reporters.

This from the Telegraph’s Tony Diver:

This just in from the BBC’s Nick Eardley:

Deaths in Northern Ireland rise to 506

The number of people who have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Northern Ireland has risen to 506 after one more death was reported by the Department of Health.

Nine more deaths in Scotland

The number of patients in Scotland who have died after testing positive for Covid-19 has risen by nine to 2,270, according to the latest statistics.

Figures published by the Scottish government show the rise in the past 24 hours.

The statistics indicate 15,101 people have tested positive for Covid-19, up of 60 from 15,041 the previous day.

There are 845 patients in hospital who have tested positive for Covid-19, up four from 841 on Saturday.

Updated

Further 147 deaths in England

A further 147 people, who tested positive for coronavirus have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 25,691.

Patients were aged between 43 and 98 years old, according to NHS England.

Five of the 147 patients, aged between 46 and 84, had no known underlying health condition.

Former Labour MP for Bishop Auckland Helen Goodman, whose father died in a care home, said she found the behaviour of Dominic Cummings “incredible”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend, she said: “What was the point of the sacrifice that we all made? What was the point of the miserable, lonely death that my father had? I just find it utterly repellent.”

Asked if she was tempted to break the lockdown to see her gravely ill father, she said: “Yes of course, of course, everybody was just wresting with these intolerable dilemmas.

“I think the cabinet ministers are utterly craven to excuse and exonerate him.

Asked if Cummings should stay, she said: “Of course he shouldn’t, there’s no question that he shouldn’t. He’s undermined the public health campaign that they’ve been running – trying to run – for the last two months.

“I think it’s incredibly destructive – not just the act in itself, but the defence of the act, I think it’s incredibly destructive.”

Updated

This from ITV’s Robert Peston:

A protest group has appeared outside Dominic Cummings’ north London home, PA Media reports.

Political campaign group Led by Donkeys drove to Cummings’s home in a van displaying a video of Boris Johnson’s speech to the country, warning the public to stay at home.

Boris Johnson offered his “full support” to his chief adviser after the news emerged.

Led by Donkeys also put up a separate installation on Westminster Bridge Road on Friday.

Posting a photo of the billboard, which reads “Stay alert, Government incompetence costs lives”, the group said: “When the PM’s top adviser is criss-crossing the country with coronavirus, it’s definitely time to stay alert.”

Updated

My colleague Heather Stewart explains why the question of whether or not to sack Dominic Cummings is so agonising for the prime minister.

This from Tim Montgomerie, the founder of Conservative Home.

He previously described defences of Cummings’ behaviour ventured by Tory MPs and cabinet ministers as “embarrassing”.

Updated

Did Dominic Cummings break lockdown rules that were enshrined in law? My colleague Helen Pidd on today’s biggest question in the UK.

Updated

Piers Morgan has announced he is barring cabinet ministers from making appearances on Good Morning Britain, after allegations were broken by the Observer and the Mirror that Dominic Cummings broke lockdown rules.

Morgan said the only cabinet ministers who would be allowed on his ITV show are those who did not defend Cummings’s alleged infringement of lockdown.

Morgan also tweeted that he believes the PM’s own position might be weakened if he doesn’t sack his top adviser.

Updated

The Labour MP for the city of Durham, Mary Kelly Foy, has told Sky her inbox is full of messages from “angry and upset” constituents, who had been in similar positions but didn’t break lockdown rules.

“Dominic Cummings has acted so irresponsibly,” she said.

This from the FT’s Sebastian Payne on the unfolding Cummings saga:

And this from earlier:

This is Jedidajah Otte, taking back over from my colleague Aaron Walawalkar.

In all the furore about Dominic Cummings, a key announcement on 6,000 homes for rough sleepers by housing minister Robert Jenrick has gone largely unnoticed.

Updated

Barrister Matthew Ryder QC has this to say on attempts to explain Cummings’s cross-country lockdown trip:

Updated

Unite calls for renewed HSE spot checks to reduce Covid-19 risk

The Unite trade union has urged ministers to rip up laws that were designed to reduce red tape but which are putting workers and their families at risk of Covid-19 infection, Rob Davies reports:

The UK’s largest union called on the government on Sunday to restore the power of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to perform spot-checks on social care institutions, shops and pubs.

The coalition government introduced measures in 2012 to outlaw proactive inspections in such workplaces because they were deemed to present minimal danger to workers’ safety.

Unite, however, has written to the business secretary, Alok Sharma, and the work and pensions secretary, Therese Coffey, saying that the same places are among the most risky during the coronavirus pandemic and pointing out that many had been to forced to close.

Read the full report here:

Updated

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has called for a full explanation of the Cummings affair, adding that what “we’ve had so far has had more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend:

This is a deadly, deadly virus which spreads with speed, which is why we went into a lockdown and it’s why the government told us and put into law a rule that we should stay at home, a rule that Dominic Cummings helped design with Boris Johnson.

His behaviour is utterly irresponsible. He has undermined that rule, as have a whole chorus of cabinet ministers including the health secretary, extraordinarily, undermined that public health rule which is about keeping people safe.

Johnson, he said, should “not hide away, should come out today at the press conference and give us a full explanation as to Mr Cummings’ behaviour”.

He added:

I’m afraid, at the moment, it rather looks like double standards, it looks like there’s one rule for the privileged elite who happen to be friends with Boris Johnson, and another rule for the rest of us who have had to make huge sacrifices, not seeing our elderly relatives, staying at home.

This is difficult for so many people and yet Mr Cummings, Boris Johnson’s right-hand man, has completely disregarded that rule.

This is Aaron Walawalkar in London here – taking over while my colleague Jedidajah Otte has a quick break and the Cummings saga continues to unfold. Please DM me any updates you have on Twitter at @AaronWala.

Updated

Conservative MP Robert Halfon has apologised for tweeting his support of Dominic Cummings on Saturday and said the PM’s aide should “face the consequences of breaking the law”.

In a statement on his Facebook page, the MP for Harlow said:

I would first like to make it clear to residents that I regret writing the tweet yesterday in the way I did about the Number 10 political adviser and his movements.

I am really sorry for it. I do not support or condone anyone who has broken the law or regulations. Anyone who has done so should face the consequences.

Here is the tweet which Halfon is apologising for:

His statement on Sunday added:

The tweet was wrong because many thousands of people in Harlow and across the country have suffered and struggled enormously during the coronavirus.

It has caused significant pain and hardship. My tweet did not recognise that. I am sorry.

My original tweet was aimed at the four-year-old child because I thought at the time that both parents had been ill with coronavirus, genuinely had no one to look after the infant – and for this reason had taken the child to their extended family to be looked after.

I thought that to do this was within the regulations.

Updated

London mayor Sadiq Khan has reminded people in the capital not to forget that lockdown has not ben lifted over the bank holiday weekend, and has asked them to “stay at home as much as possible”.

The petition calling for the sacking of Dominic Cummings has garnered nearly 55,000 signatures, most of these just over the past few hours.

The hashtag #sackcummings is trending on Twitter.

But so far, there is no sign from No 10 that anything like this will happen.

A former chief constable of Durham police has meanwhile launched a strident attack on Cummings and the government defending him, branding them self-privileged hypocrites who have damaged the fight against coronavirus at a time of national emergency.

Mike Barton, who stepped down as chief constable last year, said that the government’s defence of Cummings was causing extensive damage as police try to get the public to obey lockdown rules.

My colleague Vikram Dodd has more.

Updated

This from ITV’s Robert Peston:

The Labour party has just gone on the offensive and tweeted this:

Updated

From ITV’s Paul Brand:

Updated

This from the Telegraph’s Tony Diver:

The Conservative MP Roger Gale had told Sky he thinks Cummings is “dead in the water” if his second trip to Durham can be confirmed.

He said it was “about trust”, and that he’d like to see the prime minister announcing Cummings’s resignation at the government’s presser this afternoon.

“Mr Cummings broke his own rules, […] and there are thousands and thousands of families in similar situations,” he said.

Gale said he could understand why other MPs and cabinet ministers had initially defended Cummings, as they had understood he was merely trying to make arrangements to care for his young child.

“I think an honourable man would fall on his sword at this point,” Gale said. “The prime minister has got to deal with this. I don’t think Mr Cummings is doing him any favours.”

Updated

A British man has been detained in an Indian prison after being accused of breaching the country’s strict coronavirus lockdown rules, my colleague Nazia Parveen reports.

Sohail Hughes, 29, had been on an extended holiday to visit family in the Gujarat region before undertaking a pilgrimage of mosques when he was detained last month.

His family, who have a launched a petition to have him freed, have claimed he is being unlawfully held by Indian officials.

An emergency medicine consultant has joined the scores of people venting their anger and disbelief about Dominic Cummings’ ignoring of lockdown rules, and has just tweeted this:

This just in from my colleague Richard Adams, the Guardian’s education editor.

Updated

Labour’s Ian Murray has condemned a lack of transparency from both the UK and Scottish governments as the further impact of coronavirus cases linked to a Nike conference in Edinburgh came to light.

More than 70 employees from around the world attended the event at the Hilton Carlton Hotel on 26-27 February, PA Media reports.

My colleagues Andrew Sparrow and Mattha Busby reported on Wednesday that Nicola Sturgeon had denied the Scottish government tried to cover up coronavirus cases linked to a Nike conference in Edinburgh in late February.

In angry exchanges at first minister questions, Sturgeon accused the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Jackson Carlaw, of unfairly impugning her integrity and that of health officials by suggesting this early outbreak was hushed up.

Investigations found that at least 25 people linked to the event contracted Covid-19, including eight in Scotland, but the incident was not made public until it was revealed in a television documentary earlier this month.

The first coronavirus case in Scotland was announced on 1 March and was a Tayside resident unrelated to the conference.

But the Sunday Times says it has been reported locally that the north-east of England’s “patient zero” attended the conference in February and the infection was passed to a second person in Newcastle at a child’s birthday party.

The Chronicle newspaper also states that a church in Newcastle closed after a member tested positive for coronavirus, with it being “understood the patient works for Nike in Sunderland and contracted the virus after attending a conference in Edinburgh” - although this was unconfirmed at the time.

In a further report on Sunday, the Scottish Sun said one staff member at the Sunderland base contracted the virus after the Edinburgh conference.

Murray, Labour’s only MP in Scotland, said:

The Scottish government has fresh questions to answer about its cover-up of the ground-zero coronavirus outbreak.

Not only were people in Edinburgh kept in the dark, the decision to keep the information secret means people in north-east England were also unaware of how the virus could easily spread to their region.

There are questions too for the UK government, which should have acted when the Scottish government failed to be transparent.

The lack of transparency from both governments is harming public confidence at a vital time for the country as we move towards the easing of lockdown measures.

Updated

An unnamed Bournemouth player has tested positive for Covid-19, the Premier League club announced on Sunday, becoming the eighth case involving an English top-flight club.

Bournemouth added the player’s identity would not be disclosed due to “medical confidentiality” and that he would self-isolate for seven day, according to AFP.

“Following strict adherence to the Premier League’s return to training regulations, the club’s training ground remains a safe working environment for players and backroom staff, who will continue to be tested for Covid-19 twice per week,” Bournemouth said in a club statement.

The Premier League announced on Saturday that there were positive tests at two clubs out of 996 tests conducted on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

The other positive was at a different club that has not been named.

That followed a first round of testing that produced six positive findings announced on 19 May at three Premier League clubs from a total of 748 players and staff tested,

Those positives included Watford’s Adrian Mariappa and Burnley assistant manager Ian Woan.

Updated

The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, told Sky: “[Cummings] has to go and the prime minister has to sack him.”

Cummings had broken lockdown regulations, he said, and broken advice everyone had been given by the government.

“He is the architect of much of what the prime minister says and delivers,” Blackford said, adding it would be “a failure of leadership and a failure of judgment” if Boris Johnson does not ask for Dominic Cummings’ resignation.

Updated

The Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood has called on Boris Johnson to show personal leadership in a “formal address”.

Updated

Simon Hoare, the Conservative MP for North Dorset, told Sky there is now “growing disquiet amongst ministers at all levels” over Cummings’ rule breaching.

Updated

This just in from ITV’s Paul Brand:

This from the Times’ head of news, Katherine Faulkner:

Updated

This is an interesting point by Sky News’s Joe Pike:

A Belfast hospital is ready to contend with a potential second surge of the coronavirus pandemic, a senior official told PA Media.

The Mater hospital is caring for a number of patients as they recover from Covid-19, a process that can take weeks to months.

There have been 4,469 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Northern Ireland so far, with numbers of patients in hospitals dropping at the end of the first surge.

According to Department of Health figures on Saturday, there have been 505 deaths of patients with Covid-19.

As lockdown measures begin to be relaxed, Liz McAlea, interim co-director of unscheduled care at the Belfast trust, said officials are prepared for a second surge if it comes.

“Now that everything has calmed down quite a bit as in numbers wise, we are still in preparedness for a second wave if another surge was to come,” she said.

“Although we have turned some of our wards into non-Covid wards, within the Mater we’re still prepared in case there is a second surge.

“I think we did really well, we had up to 105 patients with Covid-19 within the Mater Hospital, with 16 ventilated, and coped very well.
Those numbers have gone down but we’re reassured that we’re prepared and the Nightingale is ready to step up again.”

The Mater was the first centre in Northern Ireland for coronavirus patients before the Nightingale facility at the City hospital opened with access to more than 200 ventilators.

McAlea said “thankfully” that level of capacity was not needed.

Updated

Steve Baker just retweeted remarks Dominic Cummings made about him previously in a blogpost, in which he described Baker as “an honest man”.

Updated

Here a video of Grant Shapps on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show this morning, where he said he didn’t speak to Cummings about details of his 260-mile trip from London to Durham.

Updated

This from the FT’s Sebastian Payne:

This from my colleague Claire Phipps:

ITV’s Robert Peston says ministers have told him Cummings’ resignation or sacking is only “only a matter of time”.

Dominic Cummings enters No 10 Downing Street

Dominic Cummings has entered No 10 Downing Street a short while ago, reportedly without answering questions about his alleged second trip to north-east England and his attitude towards resigning.

This from the BBC’s Rob Powell:

Updated

One particular statement made by transport secretary Grant Shapps this morning is attracting quite a bit of attention.

Shapps told Marr: “We’ve never told people specifically where to locate themselves.” The government’s key message in the weeks between the beginning of the lockdown and 10 May was, as you may recall, “Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.”

This from my colleague John Harris:

This from HuffPost UK’s Paul Waugh:

This from political writer and campaigner Femi Oluwole:

It’s worth noting that although at least seven Tory MPs have called for Cummings’ resignation, at least 51 have either defended him so far or at least retweeted defences from other MPs, which has been nicely documented in one place by the political writer Edwin Hayward.

Updated

Dominic Cummings left his home in north London with his wife and son shortly after 11am this morning, PA Media reports.

After one journalist asked if he had returned to Durham in April, Cummings said: “No, I did not.”

Cummings, who was wearing a lanyard with an ID card, was carrying a notepad and what appeared to be a black bin bag. The family then got in the car and drove away.

No 10 special adviser Dominic Cummings leaves his home in London
No 10 special adviser Dominic Cummings leaves his home in London on Sunday. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

A petition campaigning for Dominic Cummings’ resignation is gaining momentum and has reached over 33,000 signatures.

While the pressure on Cummings and Boris Johnson keeps building, the government’s daily press conference is expected to start at 4pm, and to be fronted by the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick.

Labour has called on the prime minister to make an appearance himself and answer questions about Cummings’ behaviour.

Updated

It’s interesting timing from the Telegraph, whose chief political correspondent, Christopher Hope, has written a piece in today’s paper about calls from the Countryside Alliance to allow visits to second homes, as well as the reopening of self-catering cottages, camp sites and other tourism businesses, so rural businesses can benefit financially from the influx of visitors.

Cummings’ alleged trip to Barnard Castle is what looks likely to be the most problematic issue for him.

This from HuffPost UK’s Paul Waugh:

This from the journalist Neil Macfarlane:

This from my colleague David Conn:

This from the BBC’s James Clayton:

And this from the Manchester Evening News’ Jennifer Williams:

Updated

A “big debate” is needed about the future of funding the BBC after the coronavirus crisis proved it can bring the nation together, its outgoing director general said.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, Lord Tony Hall said the broadcaster had been able to bring the country together and cited the work of its local radio stations as an example.

He said:

I think what the Covid crisis has proved is that people in their droves – 94% of the population of the UK – have turned to the BBC for either information, education or entertainment during this crisis.

So the question is, and by the way it’s not a question that needs to be answered until 2027 when the charter comes to an end, the question is what’s the best way of funding that universally so that everybody, this great democratic idea, gets something we can all share.

I hope that there will be a big debate about the best way of funding the BBC.

I hope even when I’ve left I can take part in that debate and we should look at the easiest way to pay, learn from what happens in other countries, are there fairer ways to pay, but the underpinning for all that is the idea of a BBC which is providing something for everyone.

Hall said 92% of the organisation was working from home during the pandemic and the broadcaster had launched its biggest ever educational programme, as well as working with arts organisations on programmes.

He added that plans to stop free TV licences for over-75s had been delayed until August and would be reviewed by the BBC’s board nearer the time.

Updated

Tens of thousands of low income households are being denied extra support designed to ease the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, after being hit by the government’s benefit cap, my colleague Michael Savage writes in the Observer today.

Particularly hard-hit are private renters with children, he reports.

This from the Conservative MP Craig Whittaker:

Seven Tory MPs have now called for Cummings to go

Sky News’ Joe Pike has counted seven Tory MPs who want Cummings to step down.

Updated

This from the Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North, Caroline Nokes, who seems to be saying that she was pressing for Cummings’ resignation yesterday.

Anyone in public spaces “should wear a mask”, according to Venki Ramakrishnan, the president of the Royal Society who also sits on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

Ramakrishnan told the Andrew Marr Show that face coverings help to reduce transmission.

“I think anyone in public spaces should wear a mask because it’s simply another tool to reduce the possibility of infections,” he said. “I don’t think masks are the be all end all, you have to think of it as one leg in a multi-legged stool that holds up prevention of transmission.”

Asked if teachers should wear masks, Ramakrishnan said: “If they are socially distanced and there are all these other measures in place, where their use is not necessary. That is a policy decision, that’s not for a scientist like me to say.

“My view is that wherever social distancing is not possible, we must regularly wash our hands and I think it would be a good idea to wear masks.”

Updated

Peter Bone, the Conservative MP for Wellingborough, has become the fifth Tory MP saying Cummings should go.

In an interview with Nigel Farage on LBC he said Cummings “has to go” because he broke the rules and has not apologised.

“When an adviser becomes the story, the adviser has to go,” he said. “Boris Johnson can carry on without Dominic Cummings if he goes but it will be hard if he stays.”

Updated

My colleague Rajeev Syal has written up a story about Steve Baker’s efforts this morning:

Just a quick reminder that it’s worth refreshing the blog every once in a while, as some posts are being added to as we go along, and some typos magically disappear over time.

Here a video of Steve Baker speaking on the Sophy Ridge show. The MP led calls from Conservative ranks for Cummings’ resignation this morning.

Updated

The allegation that Dominic Cummings made more than one journey between London and Durham “is now an issue of Boris Johnson’s judgment and integrity”, according to the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, Kirsty Blackman, PA Media reports.

She said:

Despite having eight weeks to get their story straight, the excuses are just not credible and do not stack up.

A mounting rebellion of Tory MPs have joined calls for Dominic Cummings to go. They understand the lasting damage this is doing to public confidence in the Tory government and its Covid-19 response.

The longer Mr Cummings stays in place, the more he will undermine the Tory government’s credibility and the more people will question the prime minister’s judgment.

The SNP will continue to press for a Cabinet Office inquiry into the breaking of the rules and the Downing Street cover-up, which left the public in the dark for so long.

Polling shows the majority of the public think Mr Cummings should go. Boris Johnson must come out of hiding and show Mr Cummings the door.

Updated

Cummings will not resign, Shapps says

Marr presses him on how the government can expect the public to make huge sacrifices if Cummings keeps his job after these breaches of rules.

Shapps reiterates that the guidance allowed for arrangements such as the one Cummings made, and that he does not think he needs to resign.

Says it is important to “remain locked down, particularly if you have the symptoms”.

Asked whether Cummings will resign, Shapps replies: “No.”

Updated

Shapps says his “understanding” is that Cummings did not go up and down between Durham and London “three times”.

“Some of these stories are trying to suggest that he went up, he came back, he went up - three times I’ve seen suggested - and again my understanding is that’s not the case,” he said.

Shapps added there were “massive issues which will matter to people even more than where one family spent time isolating during this, including how we build our way out of this crisis”.

Updated

Marr presses Shapps on No 10’s denial from yesterday that Cummings had been speaking to police, which was contradicted by Durham police.

Shapps states repeatedly the denial had only been in relation to the claim that police contacted Cummings, when it was his father who made contact himself.

Asked about Barnard Castle, and whether he persoanlly had stated untruthful things in relation to claims Cummings was spotted there on 12 April, Shapps says he’s not sure about the date, and that it’s his understanding that Cummings did stay put while he needed to be in isolation.

He refuses to confirm that Cummings moved around outside the home of his parents in Durham.

Are you absolutely sure he was not seen wandering around in Durham on 19 April, Marr asks.

Shapps answers evasively and says because something is reported in newspapers doesn’t mean it is true, says he goes by statements from No 10.

Updated

Shapps says he has not spoken to Cummings

Marr asks why Shapps has not spoken to Cummings about details of the journeys to Durham.

Shapps says he is the transport secretary.

“I’ve communicated but I haven’t spoken to him directly,” he said.

“I assume he would have taken every possible measure to ensure he was not infecting anybody,” Shapps says, but admits he doesn’t know.

Updated

Grant Shapps is now on the Marr show.

He says the lockdown rules apply to everyone, buty says not all theses measures “will be possible” to follow in certain circumstances. He mentions Cummings’ childcare issues again.

Marr reads out the governement’s guidance to him, which asks people not to leave their homes if they have symptoms “under any circumstances”, unless there is “an extreme risk to life”.

He asks whether there was an extreme risk to life in Cummings’ situation.

“They would have felt they had to put some measures in place,” Shapps said, stressing that Cummings’ four-year-old would not have been able to feed and bathe himself.

Updated

Fourth Tory MP calls for Cummings to go

A fourth Conservative MP, Roger Gale, has called on Cummings to step down.

Updated

This from HuffPost UK’s Paul Waugh:

And this from my colleague Rafael Behr:

This from my colleague Dan Sabbagh:

The shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show that Labour was calling for an urgent investigation into Cummings’ behaviour.

“What we’re asking for, for two things: firstly for there to be an urgent investigation by the Cabinet Office, and second for the prime minister today to take the press conference, the daily press conference, himself to provide answers, because this is an extraordinarily serious situation,” he said.

“The British people have made sacrifices, extraordinary sacrifices, to get through this crisis by following the guidelines.

“We know of grandparents, for example, who’ve not seen their grandchildren for months, sometimes newborn grandchildren, people who’ve died alone without families by their side, people who’ve not been able to attend funerals, and that’s happened because people have followed the guidelines.”

Updated

This from the BBC’s Iain Watson:

Another Tory MP calls for Cummings to resign

Another Tory MP, Damian Collins, has joined those calling for Cummings’ resignation.

Updated

This from the journalist Joe Lo:

Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at Edinburgh University, has also called for Cummings to resign.

Speaking on the Ridge show, she said: “He undermined the core public health message which was to stay home, to make sure that children are not left with elderly relatives and also going from an area that was ahead of the country – London – to an area that was a bit behind, north-east England.

“North-east England is now one of the hardest hit parts of the country. So the clear thing is, yes, he needs to resign, but we also need to move on and bring focus to the key issues facing the UK.

“The UK now has close to 60,000 excess deaths, one of the worst death rates per capita in the world, we are in a lockdown.

“We don’t have a good way out of this lockdown because there is no testing and tracing infrastructure to let us safely lift the lockdown, and we have a lot of people suffering because of a lack of clear strategy of how we are going to move forward and get out of the deep hole that we are in.”

Updated

This from the FT’s Sebastian Payne:

Ridge asks Shapps about Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab again, and whether it’s right for Cummings to be able to see family when the boy died without his by his side.

Shapps is evasive in his answer, and reiterates that Cummings acted reasonably.

“This is somebody who followed the guidelines by going to ‘lock down’ in order to be in the best place to ensure provision was made for a four-year-old,” he says of Cummings.

Updated

Shapps refuses to comment on allegations that Cummings went to Barnard Castle on 12 April

Shapps refuses to comment on allegations that Cummings went to Barnard Castle on 12 April, and says claims he went back to Durham after 14 April are “completely untrue”.

“I certainly know that the first one you mention, of travelling back up [to Durham], I know that is not true,” he said.

“I’m afraid I don’t know [about Barnard Castle] but if that date was true that would have been outside the 14-day period. But I’m afraid I don’t have the information on that.

“But I do know it is not the case that he has travelled backwards and forwards, which seemed to be a major part of the stories I saw in the paper today.”

Shapps said the latest allegations, that Cummings returned to Durham and was spotted on 19 April, were untrue.

“I think there are more stories today that I’m seeing that he travelled backwards and forwards, accusations he then went back up to Durham again further times - I understand it is completely untrue.

“When he came back to London, which was on April 14 I see, he has remained in London since and hasn’t been back to Durham.
“There are all kinds of things that are being said here that are completely untrue.

“The basic story is actually pretty straightforward. Husband and wife were ill, they hunker down, they look after their four-year-old and they don’t move until they are better.

“And coming back down to London afterwards, they would have been travelling for essential work which is always allowed as well.”

Updated

Second Tory MP calls for Cummings to resign

The Conservative MP Simon Hoare has joined Steve Baker in calling for Cummings’ resignation.

Updated

“I don’t have all the times and dates for you but I understand he will have travelled up there towards the end of March and stayed there, remained there for 14 days, didn’t leave the property and isolation, as per the rules and guidance,” Shapps told Ridge, adding he was sure Cummings obeyed social distancing rules.

He said: “You’ll appreciate I wasn’t with them so I can’t tell you exactly what that journey was like, but what I do know is that Dominic Cummings - I saw a clip yesterday of him asking journalists to be spaced two metres apart, so I know he is a stickler for those rules about what to do to make sure you are following the two-metre rule and the like, so I’m sure that they took all the necessary precautions.”

Ridge asks about police reports confirming that Cummings had been in contact with police, which had been denied by the government.

Shapps said the police was contacted by Cummings’ father, not the other way around.

Ridge says Cummings didn’t stay in the same place, as Shapps just said, and that they first travelled 260 miles. Shapps said the guidance was clear in advising people to take appropriate steps.

“He went back up to Durham further times,” Shapps says, but stayed in London after he returned.

He says several times that parts of the story reported are “not true”, says the “basic” story is husband and wife were hunkered down and organised for someone to look after their child.

Updated

Shapps says he doesn't know when Cummings had symptoms

The most important thing about the government’s guidance is “common sense practical solutions”, particularly when looking after children, Shapps says.

Both parents were concerned about being ill, with Cummings’ wife already ill when they travelled, he believes. “They took perfectly sensible, rational steps,” Shapps says.

Asked when Cummings first had symptoms, Shapps says he doesn’t know, but believes Cummings travelled to Durham at the end of March. He also doesn’t know whether the family stopped during their car journey to Durham.

Ridge says she is disappointed he doesn’t have these details, as the show put these questions to him in advance of the show.

Updated

The transport minister, Grant Shapps, is now on Ridge.

“This comes down to somebody trying to do their best by their child,” he says about Cummings’ rule-breaking. “I’d much rather talk to you about transport,” he adds.

Updated

“It is very clear that Dominic travelled when everybody else understood Dominic’s slogans to mean ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’,” Baker told Ridge.

“And I think mums and dads who very much care about their children and who have been forgoing the childcare of their extended family will wonder why he has been allowed to do this.

“I really just don’t see, as we approach the Prime Minister (appearing) at the liaison committee on Wednesday, how this is going to go away unless Dominic goes.”

His “tactics” are out of place, Baker adds.

Steve Baker is now on Sky.

Cummings will keep burning through PM’s political capital if he doesn’t resign, Baker says.

Ridge asks what he thinks of Cummings’ childcare defence. Baker says he represents tens of thousands of people who had similar problems, and the lockdown has been really tough on them.

He is diverting from the real issues. “No one is indispensable”, Baker says, and repeats that he believes Cummings should go.

“He creates an awful lot of collateral damage,” Baker says. “It’s important to win, but not at any cost,” he says, and adds that Cummings has techniques he personally is not a fan of.

“He holds in contempt any effort to hold him to account,” Baker says. “The only person he respects in politics is Michael Gove,” he says.

Cummings has always been good at taking over organisations he works for, Baker adds.

Updated

Steve Baker has told BBC Breakfast that Boris Johnson “has what it takes” to sack Cummings, and he will have to accept “quite a large number of resignations” if he sacks him, but that he will have to deal with that. Cummings should go today, he says.

Updated

Ridge asks about whether Ofsted should be appraising schools on their virtual teaching measures, Wilshaw says yes it should. He mentions children who have no access to laptops, which needs to be followed up so that government can take correct measures.

Updated

Should the summer holidays be cancelled, Ridge asks.

Wilshaw responds it is clear that a lot of pupils have lost a lot of time and have “regressed”, and stresses that it’s vital they don’t fall behind other year groups. A recovery programme is necessary, he says, which might have to involve summer school teaching.

It’s important this cohort doesn’t become “a lost generation of youngsters”, he says.

Michael Wilshaw, the ex-Ofsted chief, is now on Ridge, and says about the reopening of schools that parents need clearer evidence that it’s safe to send their children back to the class room.

Social distancing for five-year-olds will be difficult, he says. The government needs to get the confidence of parents and teachers, he says.

In some schools, the right measures might be implemented, while in others they might not be, he adds.

“Social distancing with five-year-olds is a bit like herding cats,” he said.

“It is really important that the Government get the confidence of parents and teachers and they should lay down very clear guidance and rules under which schools should operate.

“It is no good saying we are going to let schools do what they want because some schools will do it extremely well and other schools won’t.

“Some schools will ensure there is a triage system in place, there is temperature testing and classrooms are intensively cleaned and so on.

“Other schools might not be doing that so it is really important that the government is very prescriptive in what they would expect schools to do.”

Updated

Ridge asked Jones whether she thinks children should be going back to school in 8 days’ time. Jones said the government needs to fill a leadership vacuum and provide clearer answers on the track and trace programme.

Jones mentions Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, the 13-year-old from Brixton who died and was buried without his family present because of lockdown rules.

“If everybody had decided to break the rules, we wouldn’t have brought the infection rate down,” Jones says.

Updated

52% of people now think Cumming’s should resign, according to a new poll, Ridge says.

The Labour MP Sarah Jones is on Ridge now.

“Millions of people have put their lives on hold, have made huge sacrifices,” she says about Dominic Cumming’s rule breaches, adds people are rightly feeling that different rules apply for the population and Cummings. The UK had the highest death rates in Europe, she says, and that Cummings has “undermined” the police. She is calling on the government to provide more answers.

Asked if it was a good enough defence that Cummings had travelled 260 miles to seek childcare, she said: “We all have sympathy with everyone in this situation because it has been really stressful and really difficult.

“I know single mums who had Covid when their child had to stay with them and we had to chip in food to make sure they could eat - everyone has made incredible sacrifices.

“If everybody had decided to break the rules then we wouldn’t have brought this infection rate down.

“And when we heard the prime minister, we heard him say ‘stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives’ - he didn’t say ‘or drive 260 miles to Durham if you think that’s the right thing to do’.

“That wasn’t what we heard and that wasn’t what was said and that wasn’t what everybody else did, and that’s why we need answers.”

Updated

This from the Sunday Times’ political editor Tim Shipman:

Tory MP Steve Baker calls for Dominic Cummings to resign

The Conservative MP Steve Baker has just called for Cummings’ resignation.

Updated

Sophy Ridge has tweeted a video saying her show has sent Grant Shapps some of the questions he will have to answer in regard to allegations against Dominic Cummings, first reported by The Observer and the Mirror on Sunday.

He will be asked when Dominic Cummings first had coronavirus symptoms, when did he travel to Durham, did he stop on the journey, and so on.

Good morning, I am going to steer our coronavirus UK live coverage through the next few hours. Today’s front pages are dominated by Dominic Cummings’ breaking of lockdown rules, and transport minister Grant Shapps will be on Ridge on Sunday and Andrew Marr this morning to defend Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser.

Please feel free to flag any interesting updates or tips, you can either email me or message me on Twitter.

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